(From the diaries with minor edits. – promoted by James L.)
Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP, Daily Kos and MyDD.
Rumors of Democrats getting ready to take on Heather Wilson for her seat in Congress have been floating around since November.
Clearly, whichever Democrat goes against Wilson will have money behind him or her (more on that below). So who is stepping up to the plate? State Rep. Al Park? State Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino? Former Albuquerque City Councilman Eric Griego? Nope.
First up, we have the potential rock star of the group, Albuquerque City Council President Martin Heinrich. Heinrich is popular, young, and a favorite of progressives. Not to mention that he has his own website, which is always a plus for a blogger.
Joe Monahan reports he was told by Heinrich Monday, “Heinrich may try to clear the field and announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the congressional seat held by Republican Heather Wilson within the next several weeks.”
So who would he be clearing from the field? Besides the aforementioned names, maybe Rick Homans. So who exactly is Rick Homans?
Currently, Homans is the New Mexico Economic Development Secretary. He also ran for mayor in 2001… where he finished fifth behind current Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, former Bernalillo County District Attorney Bob Schwartz, the at-the-time incumbent Jim Baca and city Councilor Mike McEntee.
And according to a source of Heath Haussamen, he is considering a run for Congress. Most significantly, the source told Haussamen “Gov. Bill Richardson has pledged to support Homans in a Democratic primary.”
But if Heinrich steps into the race, not many (if any) Democrats would stand a chance in a primary against the city council President.
It’s about time local area Democrats stepped up to the plate to take on Wilson. Having quotes from potential challengers about her fauxs pas from here to election day would build a nice narrative in the minds of undecided voters.
Even better, they could start raising money to take on the inevitable large warchest Wilson will raise to try to save her job. And they will have support from the DCCC.
After all, Wilson’s seat is perennially a target for Democrats, and the DCCC began attacking her for her controversial phone call to former US Attorney David Iglesias. Iglesias was subsequently fired, and believes it was due to political pressure from Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici.
The DCCC has also started a website called the Heather Wilson Watch to keep tabs on Heather Wilson. This is similar to the now defunct Washington Wilson Watch run by the Patricia Madrid campaign. Currently, HWW is just dedicated to her role in the Iglesias firing; but it can easily be expanded to show her stances on many issues.
Interesting aside about Heinrich, national political sites such as politics1 have rated him as the best looking politician in the nation. Handsome candidates, like it or not, have had some success and also, unfortunately, a ton of woman democratic candidates in 2006 flamed out.